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Description
Grades 9–12. Take a smartphone selfie and you're using the photoelectric effect. Students establish relationships among light frequency, wavelength, and energy using LEDs while calculating Planck's constant. Investigate the wave and particle models of light as students calculate threshold voltages to turn on LEDs (photoelectric effect) and measure wavelength using a diffraction grating. The photoelectric effect and the discrete nature of quantum mechanics are addressed as well.
Grades 9–12. In 3 experiments, students determine the wavelength of 4 LED colors and construct a circuit to find the threshold voltage of the LEDs. This is used to calculate frequency and energy, and to generate a mathematical model for Planck's constant.
PE: HS-PS4-3
Related PE: HS-PS3-3
Time Requirement: 90 minutes
SEP: Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
CCC: Systems and System Models
DCI: HS-PS4.B Electromagnetic Radiation
Take a smartphone selfie, walk through an automatic door, or turn on your television with a remote, and you're using light sensors based on the photoelectric effect. In this comprehensive kit students:
- Investigate light sensors and the photelectric effect
- Build circuits to determine Planck's constant
- Learn how light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and transistors function
Students establish relationships among light frequency, wavelength, and energy for LEDs while collecting data to calculate Planck's constant. Investigate the wave and particle models of light as students calculate threshold voltages to turn on LEDs (photoelectric effect) and calculate wavelength using a diffraction grating. The photoelectric effect and the discrete nature of quantum mechanics are addressed, laying the foundation for this lab.
Activities are designed for 4 groups working in 4 student teams. FREE 1-year access to digital resources that support 3-dimensional instruction for NGSS included.
The activities in this kit build toward the following Performance Expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards*: HS-PS4-3, HS-PS3-3. This kit is designed to integrate into a larger unit of lessons addressing wave mechanics, electricity, magnetism, and electromagnetism.
*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.
